Japan 2017: Daisetsuzan Nat’l Park

The breakfasts and dinners at Hotel Taisetsu are killing me; I stopped eating lunch. This is breakfast (miso soup and rice not shown).

Claire enjoys the private onsen that came with our room.

Kogen Onsen

You can’t enter the trail without first passing through the Bear Information Center, staffed by an old Japanese guy who briefs hikers about all the bears.

He tried to brief us on the current situation. Dark spots are ponds; the man said that due to the bears we should either only eat food there or never eat food there; he was hard to understand. The blue markers are recent bear sightings. The red markers are either other bear sightings or rangers with guns posted to shoot bears; again it was unclear. Claire is unhappy.

Claire: “Wow, look at those rickety bridges down there.” Steve: “Yes, they are part of our trail.” Claire is unhappy.